News

A teacher gets a helping hand at Bright Beginnings. So does her son.

Posted On December 20, 2019

Shania Walker believes small victories can lead to big ones. And she’s the proof.

“Being a single mom can be tough,” Walker told me recently at Bright Beginnings, a preschool in Southeast Washington that serves children from families that have experienced homelessness. It serves their parents, too, and Walker witnesses its successes from both sides of the equation.

After extracting herself and her son, Jamel, from a bad situation with her ex-husband — and having to move in with her mother — Walker learned of a job opening at Bright Beginnings from Hillary Garner, the school’s deputy director of programming. They attend the same church, the Temple of Praise.

Before joining the staff at Bright Beginnings in 2018, Walker worked as a receptionist at a hair salon. But memories of working with special needs children — as she did just after high school — stayed with her. Read more here.